With the average retirement age in Canada now rising past 65 years old, many Canadians are starting to ask themselves a big question:

👉 “How much should I have saved for retirement based on my age?”

In this post, I’ll break down exactly how much you should have in savings for retirement in Canada depending on your age. You’ll also learn how to tell if you’re behind, on track, or ahead in your retirement journey — and what you can do to catch up if you feel like you’re falling behind.

In this post, we’ll break down three essential tax-advantaged accounts in Canada — the RRSP, TFSA, and FHSA — including what they are, the key changes coming in 2025, and how to use them strategically.

Retirement Planning in Canada: Key Assumptions

Before calculating retirement savings by age, let’s outline a few assumptions:

• Retirement Age – 65 years old
• Income Sources – CPP (Canada Pension Plan) + OAS (Old Age Security)
• Average CPP at 65: ~$750/month
• Average OAS at 65: ~$600/month
• Combined = ~$16,200/year
• Retirement Expenses – Average Canadian household needs about $80,000 per year in retirement
• Savings Gap – You’ll need an additional $63,800/year (on top of CPP + OAS)
• Withdrawal Rate – Using the 4% rule, this means you’ll need about $1.59M in total retirement savings
• Savings Rate – Average Canadian saves about $500/month ($6,000/year)
• Investment Returns – 5% annually after adjusting for inflation

Scenario 1: Standard Retirement at 65 (Vanilla Plan)

Based on these assumptions, here’s a simplified breakdown of required savings by age if you want to retire at 65 in Canada:

• Age 20 → ~$70,000
• Age 30 → ~$210,000
• Age 40 → ~$420,000
• Age 50 → ~$700,000
• Age 60 → ~$1.2M+

💡 Key Lesson: The earlier you start investing, the less you’ll need to save each year thanks to compound growth. Starting late means you’ll need to save aggressively to catch up.

Scenario 2: Becoming Work-Optional

“Work-optional” means you no longer need to contribute to retirement savings because your investments will grow enough on their own.

For example:

At age 30, if you already have $289K invested, you could stop saving and just let your portfolio grow until retirement.

This allows you to pursue passion projects, switch careers, or even downshift to part-time work without jeopardizing your retirement.

 

Scenario 3: Early Retirement in Canada

Dreaming of retiring at 50 instead of 65? Here’s what changes:

• No CPP or OAS (since you can’t collect until later)

• A lower safe withdrawal rate (3.5% instead of 4%)

• Required savings increase to about $2.2M

At first glance this may feel impossible, but there are proven strategies to make early retirement in Canada achievable:

(1) Increase your savings rate (e.g., by downsizing, reducing luxury expenses, or reallocating spending)

(2) Lower your retirement expenses (moving to a lower cost-of-living area or sharing expenses with a partner)

(3) Optimize your investments (avoiding high MER mutual funds, reducing fees, and focusing on growth-oriented portfolios)

With the right plan, many Canadians are able to retire in their 40s or 50s.

Final Thoughts

• At age 65, most Canadians will need $1.59M+ in retirement savings

• The earlier you start saving and investing, the easier it becomes

• With the right plan, retiring early in Canada is 100% possible

👉 Want to start building your own Early Retirement Plan, get access to my Early Retirement Calculator: